OpenAI Airs Apple's Dirty Laundry in Courtroom Chat Dump 🧺

OpenAI fired back at Apple's trade secrets lawsuit on Monday, publishing emails, iMessage exchanges and a detailed rebuttal accusing the iPhone maker of mixing up two employees with similar surnames, mischaracterizing its outreach and incorrectly stating that Apple's outside counsel had spoken with OpenAI General Counsel Che Chang before filing suit. Apple sued OpenAI in July, alleging that former Apple engineer Chang Liu, former Apple design executive Tang Tan, io Products and OpenAI misappropriated hardware trade secrets as the artificial intelligence company expanded its consumer hardware efforts following its 2025 acquisition of Jony Ive's startup. Apple's complaint accused Liu of retaining a company laptop after his departure, exploiting an authentication bug to access Apple's internal systems and downloading confidential engineering documents, and accused Tan of using confidential Apple information to benefit OpenAI's hardware efforts.

OpenAI pushed back on those allegations in a blog post, writing that "Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and built a reputation for obsessing over the smallest details," adding that "this careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation." The company said Apple contacted the wrong person after confusing two employees with similar surnames and incorrectly claimed its lawyers had spoken with General Counsel Che Chang before filing the action. OpenAI published iMessage exchanges between Liu and Apple employees sent after Liu left the company in January, in which Apple staff asked him for help locating files, transferring documents and answering technical questions, conversations OpenAI said undercut Apple's claims that Liu improperly retained access to confidential information.

According to OpenAI, those exchanges show Apple employees relied on Liu's access and that any remaining access stemmed from Apple's own offboarding process rather than deliberate misconduct. On Tan, OpenAI said the former Apple executive was repeatedly instructed not to bring or use confidential information from his previous employer. The company also argued that Apple's request for a preliminary injunction, which could restrict OpenAI's activities while the case proceeds, is unwarranted. "Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," OpenAI wrote, adding, "We're much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier."